BMA
The British Medical Association (BMA) has issued a manifesto and election statement raising four public health issues: ban on smoking in public spaces, alcohol advertising, health claims on snacks/foods for children and the environment, all of these being topical issues in EP.
BMA also has four professional concerns for doctors: working time, recognition of qualifications, new professional services directive and free movement of patients and medical devices.
EDF
The European Disability Forum has launched a EU wide campaign to attract attention of candidates to the European Parliament elections to disability issues, encourage inclusion of candidates with disabilities in political parties lists, guarantee full accessibility to voters with disabilities to the vote, and finally to encourage disabled people to vote.
IPPF-EN
Regarding the new Parliament, IPPF EN will follow up on some resolutions that have been recently voted or during the past legislature such as:
the Resolution on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights in the EU and the Accession Countries.
Resolution from the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly on Poverty Diseases and Reproductive Health in the context of the 9th EDF
Resolution on the 10 Anniversary of the International Conference on Population and Development
With the new Parliament IPPF EN would also like to focus more on the Rights aspects of sexual and reproductive health and on the issue of access to services, supplies and information.
Regarding specific activities on the European Parliament election campaign, IPPF-EN has sent out a standard questionnaire to their member associations in 23 EU Member States to be sent to their candidates to the European Parliament.
The questionnaire includes general questions relating to the area of interest of the candidates and more specific questions on sexual andreproductive health and rights. This is also a joint action with AIDS Action Europe who submitted a question specifically on Aids.
IPPF EN will make an analysis over the summer with the results of this survey.
South Sefton PCT - Department of Public Health
South Sefton PCT - Department of Public Health expressed its desire to ensure that all future legislation referring to agriculture is passed subject to QMV (Qualified Majority Voting) and by codecision.
CPME
The Standing Committee of European Doctors (CPME) has been active on Treaty Reform. Following the release of the draft Treaty, CPME expressed concern at the downgrading of public health policy from a ¨shared¨ to a ¨supportive¨ competence for the Union.
¨Health must not vanish from the European agenda¨ was the title of the CPME position statement which called upon the EU Convention and IGC to recognize the value of article 152 and demanded that equal access to high quality healthcare be regarded as a fundamental right in the EU as well as free movement of patients and professionals.
Regarding the new EP, Lisette Tiddens-Engwirda, Secretary General of CPME said:
“We welcome an Enlarged European Parliament and with its help, we have no doubts we will ensure that the quality of medicine and the safety of European patients in the EU are guaranteed.
In order to meet all EU citizens’ expectation to be and stay healthy all their lives, prevention is key. MEPs will have to consider focusing on life style issues and especially tobacco control, access to healthy nutrition and environmental questions.
This is especially important for children and the elderly. Key issues like obesity, but also paediatric medicines and elderly care will have to be addressed.
To ensure the patient/doctor partnership, the informed patient and health information are of the utmost importance. “European Patients first” is our motto.
The informed patient is a crucial partner and player in health care systems of high even quality level and safety especially in the context of patient and professional mobility.
All EU citizens have the right to a sustainable health care system based on high quality in care, safety and professional performance.
We need MEPs to make sure that the directive on automatic professional recognition and the directive on the services in the internal market meet these aims.
The revision of the working time directive is also a key element for the protection of doctors’ and patients’ health and safety. CPME is confident that the incoming European Parliament will contribute to the improvement of the European citizen’s health.”
HECTOR
The Health and Environmental Care Technical Organisation (HECTOR) favours further regulation allowing the implementation of the Aarhus Convention.
In this context, HECTOR raises several issues: the need to make sure that emission values are safe for the population and the need for the industrials to be more aware and attentive to their surrounding population.
Furthermore, HECTOR regards as essential the integration of the economic activities in the urban and countryside population and wishes the environmental and health dimensions to be integrated in the Environmental Impact Assessment studies and EMAS regulation.
European Shiatsu Federation
The European Shiatsu Federation has its own opinion on what the EU ans specially the EP should be concentrating on, regarding Complementary and Alternative Medicine or Non - Conventional Healthcare which they feel is a better term:
Establish the freedom to practice anywhere in Europe, following the treaty of Rome which gives European citizens’ the right to establishment anywhere within the Union.
There should be a specific EU research line for Non Conventional Healthcare - finally start to implement the recommendations of the May 1997 European Parliament Resolution (Collins Report 1997) to support and finance research on Non Conventional Healthcare in the EU and to investigate appropriate regulation of it. And finally, make a start on the legalisation of Non Conventional Healthcare as suggested in this report.
Positively encourage national governments to legislate the establishment of Non Conventional Healthcare professions in a way which will maintain the diversity of treatment options available to the European Citizen and respect the diverse philosophical, theoretical and methodological bases of different disciplines.
To preserve the diversity and freedom to choose there should be a variety of professional training available which respects the different approaches. Non Conventional Healthcare disciplines should not be forced to operate under the control of conventional medical thinking.
The European Shiatsu Federation thinks that there should be a survey of the regulation models that promote freedom of responsible practice. They believe that the consultative model of the current Irish Government seeks to both protect the rights of citizens to safe treatment and to support the right to practice of practitioners through regulation of training and that it should be a beneficial model for all Member States.
